Martin Luther's Letter To German Nobility Summary

In Martin Luther’s letter to Nicholas von Amsdorf, Luther states, “I am carrying out our intention to put together a few points on the matter of the reform of the Christian estate, to be laid before the Christian nobility of the German nation in the hope that God may help his church through the laity; since the clergy, to whom this task more properly belongs, have grown quite indifferent.” This sentence sets the tone and describes what Luther wants to address in his treatise. Luther is saying that he intends to address the problems within the church and bring attention to them. He is convinced the way to fix these problems is to give the task to people who are not a part of the clergy, like the German nobility.

Luther’s work started with him posting 95 theses about the use of indulgences. He argued that Indulgences removed the penance necessary to atone for one’s sins, and argued that “True contrition seeks and loves penalties”. Luther recognized that Indulgences were taking God completely out of the equation during reconciliation, and that man had God through the issue of forgiveness, which was not man’s ability to grant. His theses were considered heretical by Pope Leo X, as in his warning to Luther if he did not recant his statements he would be excommunicated, stated “No one of sound mind is ignorant how destructive, pernicious, scandalous, and seductive to pious and simple minds these various errors are, how opposed they are to all charity and reverence for the holy Roman Church who is the mother of all the faithful and teacher of the faith; how destructive they are of the vigor of ecclesiastical discipline, namely obedience”. Essentially, the Church refuted Luther’s arguments as heretical since Indulgences were considered charity, and that charity is a penance for sins. Overall, Luther’s conflict with the Church on Indulgences was monumental moment within the Church as it would bring about the fall of corruption within her offices, and loss of millions of

Martin Luther was a German professor in theology and was an important person in the Protestant Reformation. He didn’t agree with the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Most of all, he didn’t believe in the selling of indulgences (“a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins” as the Catholic Church put it). As a response to this, Martin Luther wrote the 95 Theses as a protest against the selling of indulgences.

When luther left the church he began writing his ninety-five theses. His theses was a list of things he thought was wrong with the church. Such as the church having people to work so that

In the early fifteenth century Martin Luther appealed to Pope Leo X to settle the Indulgence Controversy. This controversy extended far beyond the original appeal. It hosted a wide spectrum of theological debates concerning doctrine, the sacraments, abuse of authority within the clergy and many other essential issues of the Church. These issues required answers, the demand for moral reform. At all levels the Church was experiencing moral lapses that caused the people to lose trust in the Church and the clergy. A deep dissatisfaction and skepticism was widespread throughout the Church. Luther original request, extended far beyond struggles within the Roman Catholic, to an unofficial permission giving recognition to all those who follow. Of our rights and obligation to bring forth

Martin Luther had written 95 theses when all the public had still been forced to be in the Catholic Churches and could not choose a different religion or no religion at all. His 95 theses had been a list of 95 things that he had thought was what was wrong with the Catholic Churches and should be improved or just got rid of all together. One thing that Martin Luther had criticized on was the power that the Pope held which was way too much. He believed that the Pope had way too much of an impact on the public and their daily decisions. No matter how obscure it was, the public followed his words and orders. Another thing that Luther had disliked was the extreme wealth of the church. He believed that the church was getting way too much money from

“Under the outward appearance of the gospel, they honor and serve the devil, thus deserving death in body and soul ten times over.” Luther’s brutal words against the rebelling peasants of Germany in 1525 reveal the complex reality of the Reformation. Suppression of the rebellion by the German aristocracy was swift and violent, leaving over 70,000 German peasants dead. The rebellion targeted the social and political oppression of the peasantry in the early 16th century. The peasants found new justification for revolt in the promising words of Martin Luther. Luther proclaimed a new kind of freedom for the Christian soul and the peasants applied his idea to their own circumstances. However a dichotomy emerged between spiritual freedom

In Martin Luther’s, Open Letter to the Christian Nobility, he describes three points of justification, which the Romanists/Catholics have previously used to defend themselves, to build a wall around them so that no one has a reason to be able to reform the Catholic Church. As a result, these excuses offered by the Romanists, in order to avoid a reformation, has been the cause of terrible corruption throughout all Christendom. First, when pressed by the secular powers, the Romanists have issued commands and have established that these secular powers have no jurisdiction over them. However, on the other hand, the Romanists have also established that the spiritual is above the secular power. Secondly, an attempt is made by the temporal powers

Born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483, Martin Luther went on to become one of Western history’s most significant figures. Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church’s corrupt practice of selling “indulgences” to absolve sin. Luther was a highly religious Catholic monk and scholar. He earned his doctoral degree in biblical studies, his intent on nailing the Ninety-Five Thesis to the church door was motivated by a desire to reform the Catholic Church by addressing and correcting what he viewed as corruption, of which, the buying and selling of Indulgences was at the heart. Luther’s thesis also brought into question papal authority along with the Catholic

Luther felt that the Pope should not have the final word on matters of the church as a whole and secular concerned. He believed nobody could be worthy of Heaven by their individual actions, and only by God’s grace and faith could one enter his Kingdom. Catholic doctrines concerning the sacraments, eternal judgment, purgatory, saintly intercession and more were either wrong or in need of reform, they believed.

“the Church of Rome, formerly the most holy of all Churches, has become the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its wickedness.” He believed that Church had to many restrictions and that it was using to much power and money instead of faith, and that preachers were abusing the position of their job. He beleived that Roman Catholic Church has lost the sanse and true meaning of Christianity when they started to preach that freedom could be earned by buying induglunces as where people had to pay certain amount of money so their sins would be forgotten. Luther opposed these thinkings in ''On Christian Liberty'' by explaining that no work or indulgences are neccesary for salvation, because if man has faith, he can pure his sins by himself. He explained why faith is so important and how good works without faith are nothing.

“I have received a treatise of a Jew carrying on a conversation with a Christian in which the Jew has the audacity to pervert and misconstrue the passages of Scripture (which we use for our faith, of our Lord Christ, and of Mary, His mother) whereby he means to overthrow the foundation of our faith.” Martin Luther, the namesake of the Lutheran church, wrote this of Jews in 1543. This writing, The Jews and Their Lies, came toward the end of Luther’s life. If one looks into antisemitism, specifically within Nazi Germany, it is found that Adolf Hitler and his followers credit Luther with many of the ideologies that they hold. Thus posing the question, can Martin Luther be considered the original Nazi? Though many would argue that since this writing was written in the later years of his life, Luther’s theology is not impacted by the resounding antisemitism displayed in The Jews and Their Lies, the Anti-Semitism expressed by Luther paved the way for the ideology behind the heinous acts in Nazi Germany and in other parts of Europe. It did this through its function as the foundation for ideologies held in recent history and the language he used in his writings concerning Jews.

Martin Luther’s 95 theses were 95 things that he did not agree with the church on. Martin Luther was a monk and professor at the university of Witenburg where he lectured on the Bible in Germany. He put these 95 theses on the doors of the Catholic church and on the castle in Witenburg. The Catholic churches would not give the people bibles so they could tell the people whatever they wanted to and the pesants could not disagree with them. So, if they say you have to pay the church 1,000 dollars a week or more, you had to do it and whatever else they told you to do. This was one of the things that Luther did not agree with.

Prior to the Council of Trent, concerns for the teachings, practices, and actions of the Roman Catholic Church had caused great controversy that extended far beyond Luther’s original appeal. It hosted a wide spectrum of theological debates concerning doctrine, the sacraments, abuse of authority within the clergy and many other essential issues of the Church. These issues required answers that demanded moral reform at all levels of the Church. The Church was experiencing moral lapses that caused the people to lose trust in the Church and the clergy. A deep dissatisfaction and skepticism was widespread throughout the Church. Luther’s Theses, extended far beyond struggles within the Roman Catholic Church, it unofficially gave permission for others, even in this modern world to listen to our own consciousness and not a single authority, challenging all to cross beyond a once very rigid line created between the authority of the church and the laity.

Martin Luther argued that there were two distinct spheres of human life that influenced the actions of each individual as well as society as a whole. The first sphere, Luther called the temporal sphere, and was designed to keep the world safe and secure, and protect it from problems within itself and from other foreign dangers. It was liable for the direct body, and life of the people. The other sphere was called the spiritual sphere, and was responsible for the soul. In other words, it set the moral guidelines for society, and was supposed to do its best to keep people on track with God's Word and Law. In his Open Letter to the Christian Nobility, Luther says, "Therefore, just as Those who are now called "spiritual" -- priests, bishops or popes -- are neither different from other Christians nor superior to them, except that they are charged with the administration of the Word of God and the sacraments, which is their work and office, so it is with the temporal authorities, -- they bear sword and rod with which to punish the evil and to protect the good. A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops, and every one by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one